jOBS: Kutcher’s Steve Jobs biopic to get first screening at Sundance

Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs biopic, ingeniously titled jOBS, will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah next month.

The movie – not to be confused with another Jobs biopic penned by The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin – will close the festival on January 27, fitting nicely with the late Apple co-founder’s trademark “one more thing” routine employed at the end of many of the Cupertino company’s product launch events.

Directed by Joshua Michael Stern and written by Matt Whitely, the movie has Ashton Kutcher in the lead role and will cover the period from 1971 – five years before the tech giant was founded – to 2000, taking in Apple’s early years, Jobs’ messy departure in the mid-80s from the company he helped to create, the formation of NeXT and Pixar, and his triumphant return to Apple in the mid-90s.

The movie, which also stars Josh Gad as co-founder Steve Wozniak, Matthew Modine as former CEO John Sculley, and Dermot Mulroney as early Apple investor and former CEO Mike Markkula.

Locations used in the shoot include the actual garage where Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple, a move the filmmakers said was in keeping with their commitment to “accuracy and authenticity.”

A few photos have leaked from the set since filming started back in the summer, including the one below of Kutcher as a bearded Jobs apparently running around a field, waving his arms around like a castaway trying to get the attention of a passing plane. It’s not clear if this is Kutcher’s usual pre-shoot warm-up routine or if it’s in the script. All will be revealed next month.

The producers say the biopic will “shed new light on Steve Jobs’ most defining and personal moments, motivations, and the people that drove him,” describing it as “dark, honest and uncompromising.”